1. When Congress created the FAA, several changes were made to the government’s authority over aviation. Identify these changes.
2. TWA Flight 514 – the NTSB investigation of this incident revealed a number of systematic problems that contributed to the event. What were the key findings?
3. On page 47 of the text there is a graph showing the fatal accident rate per 1 million departures. What are some observations/conclusions you can make about the graph/data?
4. The authors discuss the importance of SMS and its impact on aviation safety. They point out that much of what was learned was based upon “aviation events” and did not consider “lessons learned” outside aviation (perhaps still true to some degree today). Why was that? What is/are the authors thought(s) on that issue?
5. What is the difference between descriptive and inferential analysis?
6. What is Part 193? Is it important to SMS?
7. How was CAST able to nearly decease aviation fatal accidents by 80% by the end of 2007?
8. What was the proximal cause of the Challenger space shuttle explosion?
9. What were the contributing causes of the Challenger explosion?
10. What was an additional important recommendation/outcome resulting from the investigation of the Challenger explosion. This outcome could be taken/implemented in many other aviation/industry settings.